Challenge Yourself With Preset Exercises

When you buy a new treadmill, your ambitions are intensified by the enthusiasm. You can actually feel the energy and the determination pushing you forward and giving you the strength to stick to your exercises and not miss a day of training. It doesn’t matter if you want to lose weight, or just improve your general health. Everybody experiences the ‘novelty high’ when buying something new. However, after a couple of weeks, your enthusiasm begins to fade away, you start missing one day of training, then two, then a whole week. By the time you know it, you are back to your old habits and the treadmill is covered in dust in a forgotten corner or in the garage.

There are a few common reasons why you can be tempted to take training less seriously after a while. You get bored after repeating the same routine over and over again. After all, the treadmill is already known as a monotonous training tool. Plus, your exercises can stop showing results after a while if you repeat the same workout. It’s normal for the motivation to drop down considerably when you see no results after hard hours of sweat and sourness. Or perhaps you just don’t find the workouts challenging enough anymore.

No matter what your reasons are, you should know that the treadmill has two strings to one’s bow. It’s not just a machine you run on, but a powerful training tool that you can exploit to your advantage so that your training sessions are always challenging, efficient and, sometimes, even fun. You can do all these if you use the treadmill’s most valuable asset: the preset workouts.

Here’s how:

Prepare your body for running with beginner preset workouts

From all the various preset workouts available on most home treadmills, beginners should focus their attention on those that help build muscles, strengthen joints and increase pulmonary capacity. These are the heart rate based workouts,hill workouts and distance workouts

On smart treadmills, such as those from Life Fitness, when you go with the heart rate workouts, the treadmill automatically controls the incline and speed based on your beginner’s heart rate (which is 50%-60% of your theoretical target heart rate). The target heart rate value is selected by the console software for your user profile considering your personal information like weight, gender and age.

Preset hill workouts automatically modify the treadmill’s incline during the exercise. Varying incline helps strengthen leg muscles and develops lung capacity. All you have to do is select the workout from the console, the intensity level and speed. The treadmill does the rest.

Hill Workouts on LiveStrong LSPRO1 and LSPRO2 with incline values for each level.

Distance preset workouts are, as the name describes them, exercises based on a goal. You select the distance at the beginning, and you run or walk as fast as you can until you reach the finish line. It is important to set such goals for yourself because they help you overcome mental barriers. Start by setting your goal at 5 k. Once you know you can do it, you’ll begin seeing amazing results.

You can alternate these exercises in your routine for diversity, but always start with the intensity level for beginners, which is Level 1. As the intensity level goes up, the workout becomes tougher, but it shouldn’t be a problem since your body is accustomed to the effort. With such preset workouts, you don’t have to worry about being at a dead end in your training program. You just increase the effort when you feel you’re ready.

Challenge yourself and train for a race with the preset workouts

Running on a treadmill is not the same as running outdoors, but this doesn’t mean you can’t use this machine to train for an actual race. I personally have never coquetted with the idea of entering a 10k race until I finished a 10k preset workout on a treadmill. The preset workouts helped me develop the necessary assets to take my training experience outdoors and actually finish a 10k race.

You can trust the treadmill preset workouts designed to prepare you for a race because they are especially designed for athletes training for cardiovascular endurance and special events. These workouts simulate terrain by modifying the incline automatically throughout the race. You set your pace and, if needed, override the incline value.
Smart treadmills, like those from Life Fitness, add a virtual opponent to the race to keep you motivated to reach the finish line.

Simpler treadmills, like Precor 9.35, have 5k and 10k preset workouts in the console, registering your performances for your user and keeping track of your performance over time.

If you are determined to enter a race, be it a 5k, a 10k, a half-marathon or a marathon, don’t rule out the treadmill from your training. It can be part of your success, if you integrate it correctly.

Diversify workouts

A rule that applies to all things in life is that diversity overcomes boredom. No matter what your goals are, diversify the workouts you do on the treadmill to challenge yourself and see progress. Most treadmills come with at least 15 preset workouts, and each workout has around 12 intensity levels. Take advantage of them. They are the key to keep your motivation up and to start seeing results.

Use a wireless heart rate monitor to observe your heart rate performance. The heart rate tells you when the effort you’re doing goes easy on your body. Remember that the body is the smartest machine of all. It adjusts fast to the effort we put it through. That’s why you always need to be aware of the moment when you must increase intensity, so you can continue seeing results.

Use the treadmill at its full potential to make up for your investment and for your effort to store such a big machine at home. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.